DIY Decor (on a budget)

I love Pinterest. It has really expanded my mind to all different ways to decorate and how to decorate, especially on a budget. Even before we moved I had already started pinning many many ideas for our new home. I was really excited to especially decorate bébé's room, which was originally a plain white color. From Pinterest I got the idea of using gray as a neutral color. I like it because it is not a usual neutral color like white or beige, but an out-of-the-box neutral. I like to think of it as a sophisticated neutral. It took a little convincing but hubby agreed to it, though he was hesitant at first.

 Bébé's room: Before shots

Voilà bébé's room: After shots

For the crib area I re-used the Japanese tree blossom decals that we had up from our old apartment. I had saved the original packaging and when it came time to move I carefully took off each decal and placed it on the sheet on which it came. I sewed the curtains myself. I got the idea of using ribbon as the ties up top from a blog (which I unfortunately can't find anymore).

For links to general inspiration shots, see here, here, and here.

For the opposite wall I hung up some Japanese lanterns that I found at the Japanese $1.50 store that opened up a couple years ago in our town using this image as inspiration. I also did some DIY decorations. Hanging on the door is something I made using scrapbook paper, with the meaning of bébé's first and middle name and including one my favorite photos that I have taken of her. This was something I originally made for a little party we had after her dedication ceremony at the church we attend.  I decided to re-use it by hanging it on the outside of her door which is opening into the room in the shot above.

Here are some close up shots of my DIY projects:

I painted a canvas white with gray chevron stripes (using a stencil I found and printed from online). I used cardboard, yarn and some flower embellishments to make a pretty letter "A" which is the first letter of bébé's name. 

This is something I made after bébé's dedication ceremony. I printed out the prayer and blessing we had read over her, pasted it on some scrapbook paper, added a flower embellishment, and framed it.

For the "shadow box", I found a random birch colored box we had lying around and painted it white. I decided to wrap an Eiffel Tower statue with pink ribbon to give the feeling of ballet shoes tied up. This particular Eiffel Tower statue has special meaning because it was part of the decorations of the wedding shower that my sister threw for us. I also decided to tie a pink ribbon around the neck of the koala bear an Australian friend gave bébé.   Originally I was going to hang the frame and the canvas on either side of the "shadow box" but I realized I actually like the look of everything together, with the frame and canvas on top of the "shadow box" and canvas overlapping the frame a little bit. 

See here, here, here for the inspiration photos. 

There are still some more things I would like to add to bébé's room but for now I am liking how it is coming along.